Can coffee help you live longer? New research published in an American medical journal has some good news for coffee drinkers. People who drink up to 3 1/2 cups of coffee a day might have a better chance at a longer life. This is true even if their coffee is lightly sweetened with sugar, according to the report in Annals of Internal Medicine. For about seven years, researchers recorded the coffee habits and health of 171,616 people. The participants were an average of 56 years old with no cancer or heart disease. The study found that those who regularly drank 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of coffee a day were up to 30% less likely to die from any cause in that time frame than non-coffee drinkers. The type of coffee (e.g., instant, decaffeinated) made no difference. The latest research does not prove that coffee drinking alone lowered the participants' risk of dying. However, this is not the first study to link coffee drinking to health benefits. Other studies in the past showed a reduce in the risk of health issues such as type 2 diabetes and depression. Nutritionists often talk about the healing properties of coffee beans. --The content as it appears here has been adapted from the original article: "Regular coffee drinkers had a lower chance of dying in 7-year period." July 19, 2022. © The Washington Post
